Blog Carnival

Check it out! My reusable food bags are featured on today's Craft Critique Blog Carnival! There are also some way fun ideas for recycling, reducing, and reusing through crafting. I'm looking forward to trying a few of them myself. I knew there was a reason I was saving every cereal box and plastic container that comes through our front door!

Wine Bottle Dribble Catchers

I saw this idea while thumbing through a knitting pattern book at one of the craft stores where I spend too much of my time. I honestly cannot remember what the book was called or even what the cover looked like but I'll try to find it again so I can give credit where credit is due. Anyway, I took note of the approximate measurements and decided I could probably improvise the pattern and even change it up a little (after all, it's basically a three inch tube with a ruffle created by two rows of increases). Below is the result. The green and brown striped one looks like the one I saw in the book. The purple and grey one is my own variation. I'm hoping I can come up with some more original patterns for these so that I can put a few up for sale in my etsy store.

Ditch the Plastic

Although the idea is borrowed, this particular pattern is my own. This is a fairly simple design based on the sizes of resealable sandwich and snack baggies. They are constructed of cotton fabric lined with a water resistant nylon material so they can be machine washed and dried. They are great for carrying anything from pretzels to apple slices. As soon as I do a little more "field testing" and perfecting of the design, I plan on putting some of these in my etsy shop so keep an eye out for them.

Puppy Love

I made this from a pattern I found on clearance at Walmart. There were some challenging curves to negotiate and I had to fudge a little to get the pieces to line up but overall I'm happy with the final result. As soon as I finished shoving the stuffing in through the very awkwardly placed hole in the dog's rear end, I knew I had done something right when Sofie recognized it as a dog and dropped everything to give her new stuffed friend a hug. She formed some sort of special bond with it and wanted to take it everywhere with us for the next week or so. Since Pup-puh, as she refers to him, is just about as big as she is, I was relieved when the instant infatuation wore off just enough to allow for getting out of the house without a meltdown over my unwillingness to lug around a giant stuffed fabric dog. I guess it just goes to show, sometimes the simplest toys are the most special.

Tic Tac Tote

I'm still kind of getting used to the world of crochet but I recently made this fun little project (the free pattern was from the Lion Brand Yarn website). There was a lot of weaving in yarn tails and stitching pieces together (two of my least favorite parts of yarn crafting) so I'm not sure how many more of these I'll be making but I'm glad this one worked and I'm happy with how it came out.

I May Have "Accidentally" Adopted A New Craft

I've walked past the needle punch kits at craft stores countless times, telling myself that I should use up all of the yarn and fabric I've been hoarding before I try my hand at anything else but here I am, a few used up 40% off craft store coupons later, totally into this super fun, super easy form of embroidery. It's kind of like doing cross-stitch but without all the counting. I will admit that at first I was a little put off by the seemingly "willy nilly" nature of this craft. There was definitely a learning curve for me. But by the end of my second project (the coffee cup) I felt like I had really hit my stride and now I "get it." So, in order to justify this new craft craze, I plan on coming up with some of my own designs to needle punch (or forcing...er asking my husband nicely to help me with some drawings) and figuring out how to use them as appliqués for my other crafting obsessions. We'll see how that goes. In the mean time, the store bought kits are a nice mindless, satisfying stress reliever. Here is what I have done so far. (I showed what the backs of the projects look like too just because I think it's kind of interesting.)

Dishcloths Galore!

In between nursing my newly discovered sewing obsession and trying to keep my sanity in tact, I have managed to maintain a fairly healthy relationship with knitting. My project of choice these days is a simple dishcloth pattern. I'm pretty sure I got it from the Lion Brand Yarn website originally but it's something any experienced knitter could probably figure out on their own and I've let it evolve somewhat into something I'm very pleased with. I love that these are portable and easy to work on while there are other things going on around me. Once the stitches are cast on there is almost no counting involved and the pattern is simple enough for me to be able to talk/listen while I do it but interesting enough to keep me from getting bored when I'm knitting alone in silence. Just in case you're interested, these are actually available for purchase in my etsy store.